Marcum is Caterpillar Faculty Achievement Award winner

11/02/2010 5:40 PM

It is the highest teaching honor an untenured faculty member could receive at Bradley.

She knew she had been nominated, but she never imagined she would actually receive the award.

Yet, as the winner’s biography was read, Tanya Marcum thought it sounded awfully familiar.

Then, the speaker announced her name for the Caterpillar Faculty Achievement Award for Teaching.

“I was shocked,” Marcum said. “I was surprised and really happy. I thought there was no way that I had won!”

Marcum is an assistant professor of business law at Bradley University where she is dedicated to making legal education exciting for students.

“I try to think from their perspective about something that would be interesting, and then I use that as an example to illustrate a legal principle,” Marcum said.

One class exercise mirrored a real-life case of student business owners in a lawsuit with a Fortune 500 company. In the class exercise, Marcum presented her students with fictitious legal problems and asked them to come up with legal and ethical resolutions. 

In 2009, the Foster College of Business Administration awarded Marcum the innovative teaching award for developing such compelling exercises.

While Marcum is relatively new to campus, having arrived in 2007, she has already fallen for Bradley.

“I love it,” Marcum said. “I love the caliber of the students. It’s been a great fit for me as far as research, service, and teaching.”

Foster College of Business Administration Dean Robert Baer said Marcum’s award was well deserved.  He said Marcum exemplifies the one characteristic valued most in a Bradley teacher.

“Passion,” Baer said. “Passion for students and passion for the arts and sciences. That’s what it comes down to.”